Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on September 9th, 2014
“Drag racing is for fast cars. Road racing...that's for fast drivers.”
I imagine that distinction — along with one character scolding another for pulling a “Vin Diesel stunt” — is meant to set this straight-to-DVD racing drama apart from the Fast & Furious franchise. That separation is an interesting choice for a couple of reasons. On one hand, I assume it's been easier to finance any car-centric flick ever since a certain high-octane film series proved there's an audience for the genre. Then again, the increasingly staggering success of the Fast movies seems to be directly proportional to how ludicrous they've become. So by positioning itself as a less outlandish/more grounded alternative, Born to Race: Fast Track seems to be targeting gearheads craving a more realistic racing drama. And, apart from its half-baked cliches and total predictability, it actually kinda succeeds.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on September 5th, 2014
There are movies that can be described as slow burns, and then there's Night Moves. Director Kelly Reichardt frames much of her 112-minute thriller in a way that invites you to pay an inordinate amount of attention to the lush greenery, winding trails, and tranquil water the film's three protagonists go to dangerous lengths to preserve. The extended, quiet sequences and exceedingly simple plot also encourage viewers to fill in spaces in the story that seem to have been intentionally left blank. This deliberate approach will undoubtedly infuriate and bore some people, but I personally found it absorbing enough to recommend as an unconventionally tense drama.
Night Moves is about three environmentalists who plot to blow up a hydroelectric dam. (See? I told you the plot was exceedingly simple.) Given that the movie's synopsis can be neatly wrapped up in a single sentence, the real pleasures in Night Moves are derived from trying to figure out precisely how they're going to pull it off and how the characters relate to one another.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on August 28th, 2014
“You have just seen an authentic disclosure of conditions which unfortunately exist in some of our high schools today. The job of policemen will not be finished until this insidious menace to the schools of our country is exposed and destroyed.”
“Authentic” is probably a stretch, but High School Confidential! is certainly fascinating for a variety of reasons. Every generation has an alleged scourge that invades high schools and threatens to rip apart the very fabric of society. (Cue masterpiece eye roll.) In 1958, that menace went by the name “Mary Jane.”
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 27th, 2014
"It's like Prohibition never happened but for one thing. Prices will increase twenty-fold. We got a product a fellah's gotta have. Even better is that, we got a product he ain't allowed to have."
The fourth season of Boardwalk Empire began pretty much the only way it could have after the bloodbath that ended the previous season. It was an explosive season that delivered the best gangland war in television history. Now there has to be some kind of peace or at least status quo after the end of the violence. Nucky is making his peace with Arnold Rothstein and his people. He also owes Chalky White for saving his behind when war broke out. It's all going to cost him: money to Rothstein and the rebuilt club on the boardwalk for Chalky. The new Onyx club is now run by a man who is not allowed to sit in the front section of his own club.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on August 26th, 2014
“Could you please reduce your level of hysteria?”
There is a lot of yelling and a lot of outrage in The Normal Heart. The film chronicles the confusing, terrifying onset of the HIV-AIDS crisis in the early 1980s and how a group of gay men (and one intrepid doctor) in New York fought to draw attention to the deadly disease. Their efforts are alternately frustrating and futile, which leads to a higher decibel level for much of the movie’s second half. Thankfully, The Normal Heart is shrewd enough to note that there’s more than one way to make a point. More importantly, the film does a strong job of illustrating the different ways the yelling and outrage were justified.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 12th, 2014
Experimental film can mean lots of different things. Usually it means chaos and disorientation as we are plunged into worlds we have never seen before, but experimental can merely mean doing something that has never really been done before. In this case, it is taking a simple idea and seeing if you can make it work. Can you make something interesting that seems too simple and too basic? Anything can work if you apply discipline and intelligence to a project. In this particular case, that is what happened. A simple premise has been executed brilliantly due to a number of factors. The first factor would be the actor Thomas Hardy.
Tom Hardy is Locke in the hyperbole of old movies but also because Tom Hardy is the single driving force of the movie Locke. It also helps that Tom Hardy is destined for superstardom. It hasn't happened yet, but those in the know, know it will. People don't know Hardy from The Dark Knight Rises, and I say don't know because you only saw his face briefly, and his voice was a maddening concoction. Hardy was Bane in that movie, and his face was covered by a mechanical breathing device which obscured an effete, elitist and taunting voice. His incredible power as an actor is demonstrated time and time and time again when he steals scene after scene in Inception, This Means War, Lawless, Warrior and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Upcoming roles for Hardy are as Elton John in Rocketman, Mad Max in Mad Max: Fury Road and the lead role in Kathryn Bigelow's True American. He has the burning intensity of a British Brando and the quiet sensitivity and range to do just about anything including bulking up with muscles if necessary. I'm sure he could un-bulk or get fat if needed as well. He's done it before. Tom Hardy's performance in Locke is a tour-de-force.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on August 7th, 2014
In the wake of the success of Game of Thrones, many companies are trying to ride on that bandwagon and produce films that will hopefully capture the same audience. Unfortunately, it would seem so few come close to capturing the magic that the HBO series brings to the small screen. To be upfront, I haven’t seen the first Ironclad film, though upon looking it up on IMDB I see that it boasts a solid cast. (And after watching a trailer for the film, it is something I’d like to check out.) Fortunately in the case of Ironclad: Battle For Blood, it is a sequel that stands alone from its predecessor.
Set along the border of Scotland in 1221 — though the real filming was said to be done in Serbia — the film has a strong and promising start as we see Guy (Tom Austen) engaged in a battle to the death while onlookers cheer and make bets. Unfortunately, the story is more about Hubert (Tom Rhys Harries) and the choices he has to make while his father’s kingdom is being sacked by Celtic raiders that are seeking vengeance.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 31st, 2014
"Make no mistake. Blood will be spilled. Lives will be lost. Fortunes will be made. Men will be ruined. There will be betrayal and scandal and perfidy of epic proportions."
With a statement like that, how can you not want to check out AMC's newest drama series Hell On Wheels? I've been told the title sounds like it's about motorcycle gangs, and I couldn't agree more. The term refers to the mobile tent city that housed the workers on the Union Pacific Railroad and the support entourage the camp attracted. It was a virtual tent city that had all of the essentials: a church, bar, and whorehouse. It was just after the Civil War, and the American government believed that a railroad connecting the east and west coasts was just the kind of project the country needed to pull back together and heal still-festering wounds. As one of the filmmakers accurately points out, this was the Apollo moon project of the day. Long believed impossible by the brightest engineers of the day, the railroad would cut the time it took to go from coast to coast from six months to just under seven days. It was a truly remarkable feat, and it carried with it more than a fair dosage of corruption and blood. Now AMC has brought those days from 1865 back to our television screen with an ambitious and smartly produced series. It's a must see.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on July 31st, 2014
The impending death of a loved one tends to dredge up a complex mix of emotions. (Unfortunately, I speak from relatively recent personal experience.) In addition to the obvious sadness, there can be guilt, resentment, anger, relief, and other sentiments that combine to create a messy stew of feelings. Putting those feelings on the page or on a screen is an emotional minefield, since you risk veering jarringly from one tone to the next. The task becomes even trickier when you attempt to introduce humor into the equation. Lullaby stumbles over a few of those mines, but is otherwise a well-acted, modestly-affecting dramedy.
The movie opens with a close up of Lowenstein family black sheep Jonathan (Garrett Hedlund) taking a long, luxurious drag off a cigarette. Soon enough, we learn the gesture functions as a middle finger on a couple of different levels. On one hand, Jonathan is smoking on an airplane lavatory, which almost gets him arrested by a strict flight attendant. On top of that, it turns out Jonathan is on his way to visit his well-to-do New York City family because his father Robert (Richard Jenkins) is dying of lung cancer.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on July 30th, 2014
No matter how far removed you may be from Sunday school — or even if you never attended in the first place — chances are you know that God spoke to Noah. You also know He told him to build an ark in anticipation of a catastrophic flood meant to wipe out mankind. What you may not have realized (or remembered) is that, in the Bible, Noah himself doesn't speak at all until well after that rain starts. So in adapting the famous Book of Genesis story to the screen, any filmmaker is going to have to take a certain amount of liberties. And when that filmmaker is Darren Aronofsky, the result is a strange, uncommonly thoughtful blockbuster that is as flawed as the hero it presents.
“In the beginning, there was nothing...”
